Residents in Hua Hin are facing shattered lives as “Party Houses” are springing up all over town.

Rather than going for long term rental contracts people with property to spare are opting for renting their houses out for wild parties on a nightly basis.

They have found they can make much more money by letting partygoers take over their property for a wild night often including noisy karaoke and pool well into the morning.

Some people have been forced to leave their own homes and sleep elsewhere.

While yet more others who want to sell up and move away are unable to do so as buyers get wind of the problem, often in classy residential estates.

There are also claims that the parties feature more than booze – one Australian man spoke of one house being used for illegal drugs.

Requests for action to the police and local council have achieved nothing and now residents at their wits end have turned to Thaivisa to publicize the issue before things potentially turn violent.

One man affected is British retiree Paul Fearnley, 57 who moved to Thailand with his wife Stella, 66, three and a half years ago. They previously lived in Lincolnshire.

He was expecting a quiet idyllic lifestyle in Thailand but instead it has turned into a daily nightmare of noise and ever increasing problems and frustrations.

He said that there are two houses in the “Sunshine Mountain 1” housing estate that are being rented out as party houses after the owners realized they could make a killing.

One is owned by a Thai couple and the other Australian/Thai.

“Both properties have moved in karaoke machines,” he said, “and one even has a pool table. That has made the screaming from that place even worse for some reason”.

He said that the problem has been going on for a long time but has been even worse recently with the Songkran holidays meaning parties every night – and no sleep for any of the neighbors.

“We have friends who just go and stay elsewhere during the parties – they can’t sleep.

“And it is not just in our housing estate,” he claimed. “This is happening all over Hua Hin. Just down the road from us in another new estate they have it even worse than we do”.

Police have been called on numerous occasions but while that means the noise goes down temporarily it is soon cranked up again when officers leave.

There have even been reports of partygoers’ waste such as bottles and cans being dumped in neighbors’ bins because the ones at the party houses were overflowing.

The partygoers are all Thais he said.

“A friend of ours is trying to sell up and move away,” said Paul, “but when prospective buyers find out about the party houses they are no longer interested in moving in”.

The council has been called in by Thai people living in Paul’s estate – that currently has just 19 properties – but while promises are made to take action nothing concrete has taken place.

“Our peace has been shattered”, said Paul, “And the problem is now all over Hua Hin and the authorities must take action”.

While he told Thaivisa that there have been no threats to people at this stage he admitted that it could turn nasty if something is not done.

Meanwhile, the situation for an Australian couple in Soi Green Shop off Para U Road is probably even worse.

Electronic engineer Peter Merz and his wife Paula, both 72, have a party house right next door to their two story property as well as another one just 40 meters away.

“It is impossible to describe how unbearable this situation is,” Peter told Thaivisa on Tuesday. “Next door there has been a party almost every night since the beginning of March”.

Peter, who had lived in Bangkok for ten years and has been in Hua Hin for seven said that only being able to go to friends’ houses has kept the couple sane.

They have only slept in their own home twice since the beginning of April, he said.

His neighbor is a Thai man who refuses to discuss the matter instead referring the couple to an agent.

Speaking about the noise from the pool area as well as a pool table set up in the home he said that sleeping was impossible and that 5 to 6am endings for the parties were par for the course.

In addition the houses were not built for large numbers often up to 20 persons – consequently he said that the septic tank had overflowed sending the smell of awful waste over to his side of the fence.

This prompted the agent to make alterations but the noxious smells continued unabated.

“The more whisky and beer they drink the louder it gets,” said Peter. “And I have also observed the use of illegal drugs on more than one occasion”, he claimed.